Apoorva Mehta at Startup School NY 2014

Before Instacart, Apurva Mehta worked as a back-end logistics engineer at Amazon in Seattle. He realized his learning was plateauing and decided to quit his job to focus on developing startup ideas, which eventually led him to San Francisco.

Apurva Mehta's most notable failure before Instacart was a 'social network for lawyers.' The team built the product without understanding the target audience or their needs, leading to another failed venture and a key lesson about solving problems you genuinely care about.

Instacart applied to Y Combinator after the deadline had passed. Apurva Mehta managed to get introductions and, after initial rejections, sent a six-pack of beer to YC partner Gary Tan. This informal gesture led to a meeting, and ultimately, Instacart's acceptance.

The principle encourages startups to perform tasks manually or inefficiently at first to gain traction and product-market fit. Instacart, for example, had orders fulfilled by the founder himself, even using Uber Black cars, demonstrating that larger companies wouldn't undertake such efforts, giving startups a competitive edge.

Raising a seed round was challenging because Instacart had limited data and traction. Additionally, investors were reluctant due to past spectacular failures in the online grocery delivery market, such as Webvan, making them hesitant to invest in a similar business model.

For stores without digital APIs, Instacart employed an unscalable method: they bought one of every item, took photos in a studio, and then manually created the catalog. This was done for stores like Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and Costco.

After establishing itself in San Francisco, Instacart launched in Chicago, Boston, and DC, experiencing progressively faster growth in each city compared to the previous one and the Bay Area. This city-by-city expansion led to Instacart being in 10 cities with consistent 10% week-over-week revenue growth.